I'm not supposed to take an oath," Board President Phil Mendelson said angrily during a DCPS hearing Friday, "but that's kind of BS? I mean it?"

Only a politician who is known as "nitpicky" can be so angry at the issue of boring trade, which was the subject of a special public meeting convened by the president last week. Look below the well-thought-out side of these words, and you'll see some good reasons why Mendelson's laid-back attitude has kept so many listeners in the castle.
Mendelson's attack stems from his recent findings that DC public school officials have been bypassing the Board's review process for big deals for at least the past few years. DC companies are expected to submit any contract worth $1 million or more to the Board for approval before they execute it (a process that is usually the process for all or the most important and politics), it seems that DCPS has not done so. in about 13 separate cases since January 2021, according to school system information provided to Mendelson. That's about $113 million in spending that lawmakers have yet to review, but DCPS has already begun awarding the agency before sending a contract to the Council. "As someone who has been involved in the procurement process at DCPS, I know that sometimes things can happen," said At-Large Board Member Christina Henderson. "But as for the volume of these contracts being handed back, I think there's something else going on here."

DCPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee called the errors "unacceptable" and "disturbing" and promised an internal review into the school procurement process. But this kind of struggle between leaders and legislators is not really new; Ward 4 council member Janeese Lewis George said in a letter to colleagues earlier this month that two businesses under her committee's jurisdiction have done the same, calling it "a lack of leadership for a major project." " of the "prolonged problem" in the region. Administration. But the content of some of the contracts blocked by DCPS is what angered Mendelson, taking the matter more than Wilson's domestic power struggle.
Two of the contracts, valued at more than $42 million, are for companies that provide food services for DCPS: SodexoMagic and DC Central Kitchen. DCPS parents and DC politicians will remember that this provider took over the administration in 2016 following a minor scandal related to the school restaurant contract - the former superintendent of the school came to an end suddenly in a deal with the city following a $19 million defamation scandal.
Legislators felt they were forced to accept a contract with SodexoMagic, among others, to avoid disrupting food for 100 public schools, although they were concerned about the company's history. Giant corporation Sodexo, which founded SodexoMagic with Magic Food Provisions, has history in this space after agreeing to a $20 million settlement in 2010 to pay 20 New York City schools for food services. D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson issued a report in 2016 recommending that DCPS strengthen its rehabilitation program to avoid these types of issues in the future, but the current structure has not changed much since then. Parents have raised various complaints about the quality of SodexoMagic's food, with some saying the food served at the school on the east side of the Anacostia River is "unrecognizable". Mendelson brought the same thing home on Friday, bringing three different SodexoMagic meat dishes that he thought were a combination of "meatless" and "meatless".
All of this to say that Mendelson and other lawmakers want to review these contracts before DCPS reviews them. The kids are now on the SodexoMagic diet until at least July. "That doesn't mean the contract is valid and the company's management authority is respected here," Mendelson said.
Ferebee said this was all just confusion on the part of DCPS officials, not malicious intent. The school system is expected to award these food contracts in late 2020 before they expire in June 2022. The pandemic is delaying the process, so DCPS chose to give the vendors another year of work, from June 2023. Officials are preparing to issue a new contract in the coming months and they plan to send out requests for a one-year extension to the council. at the beginning, but some inaccuracies of the company delayed the process until mid-December. , Ferebe said.

The council only has the power to force Bowser's representatives to change their ways, showing how hard it can be to ask the administration to do something it doesn't want to do. Mendelson and Ferebee are fighting a similar battle over the chancellor's failure to comply with the recently introduced rules governing school budgets. The contract kerfuffle comes as the Council is busy considering various bills to eliminate DCPS's independent procurement authority in favor of outsourcing contracting and local procurement. This will look like a daring choice for lawmakers if these "steps" persist. "While I understand that the concerns raised today are troubling... I don't want to lose our ability to be gentle and sensitive and to respond to urgent needs," Ferebee said, reading the writing on the wall. . "I hope that the Board will reconsider this decision, as we believe that in the end it could damage the facilities, goods and services that the school needs to serve students or families.